Hero
Written by FightorFlyT
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Chapter 3: Sweet Chances
“Rarity! I'm back!” Sweetie Belle called out as she and Neiku walked inside the boutique.
A sudden crashing sound shot out from further within, and a split second later a small, rather fluffy fluffy cat darted from the depths of the building.
“Opalescence? What's wrong?” Sweetie Belle asked as Opalescence rushed beneath a stack of fabric sheets and curled up in a ball, absolutely terrified.
“No no NO! Absolutely NOT!” A voice that sounded rather high class and, quite honestly to Neiku, snoodish, screamed from somewhere above them.
Sweetie Belle sighed, face-hoofing. “She gets like this, sometimes,” she explained awkwardly. “We should probably just... y'know, let her work it out.”
Neiku nodded slowly, not wanting to get on Sweetie's sister's bad side. From what he'd heard, that was a BAD idea.
Sweetie Belle took a sharp breath to try and fill the silence that had surrounded the two. Neiku sighed, garnering a questioning look from Sweetie Belle.
“SO, is there something I can do for you?” Neiku said with his eyes closed. He was, quite honestly, a little irritated with the mare in front of him. She'd abducted him, for Faust's sake!
Sweetie suddenly blushed furiously, looking at her hooves. “Y-yeah, a-actually...”
Neiku cracked an eye open at Sweetie, raising an eyebrow. “Oh? Please, do tell,” he voiced with sudden aggravation. While he wasn't a violent pony, he was just as easily annoyed as the next. Especially when he's drug from a library on his rump to a mare's house, just to have her lock up on him!
“Well, i-it's about... uh...” Sweetie Belle stammered. He's gonna think I'm weird! He won't want to help me...
“Yeees...?” Neiku pressed.
Sweetie Belle shot her focus to him, shouting frantically.
“If I tell you, then you have to promise to help me!”
Neiku felt a bead form on his brow. “Huh?”
“I'll only tell you if you promise to help me!” Sweetie Belle hesitantly spat out.
You're kidding me... Neiku thought. She practically pony-naps me for some 'help', but now she won't even tell me what she needs help with?! Why, this prude little-
Neiku forced himself a slow, determined breath.
Calm down, Passion, Neiku told himself, using the name his mother used to call him. Might as well play along. No need to get angry with her. Heck, if it's as important as this mare seems to be making it out to be, I really should help her...
He felt a vein pulse on his forehead. Even if she's completely crazy...
With a quick mental buck to himself for what he was about to do, Neiku opened his eyes and turned his gaze to rest fully on the still stammering Sweetie Belle.
“C-cuz you don't have to s-say you will, b-but I c-can only tell you if-” Sweetie Belle continued, oblivious to Neiku's momentary mental argument.
“Sweetie.”
“I m-mean, if you d-don't want to, it's fine, b-but-” she continued, paying no attention to Neiku.
“Sweetie...” Neiku pressed again.
“It's no b-big deal, really, I just-”
“SWEETIE!” Neiku barked, startling Sweetie back to reality.
“Wha- huh? Yes?” she asked, confused by his outburst. He didn't seem the type to shout... she thought.
Neiku bit back a retort to this, but instead swallowed his tongue. “I'll do it.” he said evenly.
Sweetie Belle stood there, stunned. Did he really just... Agree?
“... What?” she drooled out, lamely.
“I said, I'll do it. I promise to help you out. Just... don't expect too much, 'kay?” he said with a small, lop-sided grin on his face.
“You... you really mean it?” Sweetie asked, eyes wide with hope. “You'll help me however I need, whenever I need? Any time, however I say so?”
Neiku wasn't really listening at this point, and simply nodded. “Fine, yeah...”
“Really?” Sweetie asked again, her face suddenly breaths away from Neiku. Neiku gulped.
“Y-yeah,” he stated. “Besides, not much point in arguing with you. You'd probably just end up abducting me again...” he added.
“Yay!” Sweetie suddenly perked up, unphased by Neiku's little jab at the end. “Then we need to start right away! C'mon!” Sweetie Belle wrapped a loop of her magic around Neiku's hoof and drug him after her as she bounded through the house, purposefully avoiding her sister's room.
“Wait! Where are we going?!” Neiku cried.
“My room!” Sweetie Belle informed him as she clambered onto the landing. A moment later, she was slamming her door shut, locking it with her and Neiku safely inside.
“Why are we in here?!” Neiku asked, visibly terrified. He sure hoped that Sweetie Belle wasn't planning on doing anything... obscene.
“Cuz I don't want my sister hearing us!” she said. Neiku gulped.
Oh no... he thought.
“Hear us... what?” he asked, scared of what the answer might be.
Sweetie Belle, however, was far more interested in fiddling with a chest on her floor.
Neiku took this moment to look around Sweetie's room. It was pink and had silly frillies all over the walls, pictures of her with her fellow crusaders spanning one entire wall.
She really must care about her friends, Neiku thought to himself.
“Okay!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly. Neiku jumped in fright at the sound.
“This is what I... needed you to help me with...” she ended with a whisper, magicking a clean white envelope over to Neiku. He grasped it with a hoof, looking at the front.
To Nimbus Aura, From Sweetie Belle.
The 'I' in Nimbus and Sweetie was dotted with a little heart.
Neiku felt his stomach drop a little. He knew what this was...
“Sweetie, is this a-”
“You said you would! You promised!” Sweetie cried out, pointing a trembling hoof at Neiku.
Neiku took a deep breath. He did promise, and he planned on honoring it. However, he had to know-
“Sweetie,” he asked, “is this a... love letter?”
Sweetie Belle squeaked as she hid behind her mane, trembling like a leaf in the wind. Neiku chuckled rather ironically at her before trotting over to her and carefully placing a hoof on her, letting it rest gently against her soft white coat.
“Don't worry,” he told her. “I'll make sure he gets it.”
Sweetie Belle sniffled.
My- was she actually crying?! Neiku thought, horrified. She must have been really worked up about this...
“Hey,” Neiku said, bringing his hoof to under her chin and forcing her to look up.
He locked his eyes on hers. They were tinged red from strain, and she had the most adorable yet upset face a pony could ever see.
“He'll get it. Don't worry.”
Sweetie Belle smiled softly, nodding as she batted away his hoof.
“Th-thank you,” she said, rubbing her eyes with a hoof.
“It's no problem, honestly,” Neiku told her.
Sweetie Belle gave a croaked laugh before sighing.
“That was... really all I needed to ask you, heh,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck.
“So I can leave?” Neiku asked, a little too hopeful. Sweetie narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Yeah, you can...” she said before she remembered one teensy little detail.
“But you can't go out through the front door!”
“Why?!” Neiku asked. “Isn't that how ponies normally leave in this country?”
Sweetie Belle face-hoofed at how thick he was being.
“Yes, normally. However, my sister is probably going to hear you leaving. She gets, like, hyper-alert after she has a break-down.”
“I'm not following,” Neiku admitted.
“Well...” Sweetie Belle continued. “My sister is reaaally protective. She would face down a raging hydra if it meant protecting me; I'd hate to see what she'd do to you if she saw you trying to sneak out of my room.”
A little lightbulb went off inside Neiku's head.
“Oooh...” he muttered dumbly. It made sense now.
“Exactly,” Sweetie Belle said, nodding. “I suppose you could climb out my window. It opens up to the-”
A split second later, both of their hearts stopped.
“Sweetie Belle, did I hear you dear?”
It was Rarity.
“Go.” Sweetie Belle dead-panned.
“On it.”
Neiku was out the window and desperately grasping a thick branch of the tree that grew right alongside the boutique. He dropped to the ground, beating hoof to desperately put distance between him and the building. Sweetie's letter was clenched between his jaws as he galloped away.
He had a job to do.